Ibec boss backs Boris Johnson’s plan for UK-Ireland tunnel link
Tallin to Helsinki rail project could be pricing guide for ‘not unaffordable’ scheme, says Danny McCoy
A PROPOSED tunnel linking Ireland and Britain “makes an awful lot of sense”, the head of Ibec has said.
Danny McCoy, the chief executive of the Irish business and employers group, said the project is affordable and is an important symbol of postBrexit links with the UK.
“The tunnel is a symbol. I actually do think the tunnel makes an awful lot of sense and it’s not actually unaffordable, as that would fit under the logic of capital investment. You could borrow for it. It would be great.”
British premier Boris Johnson’s idea for a roundabout beneath the Isle of Man, connecting undersea tunnels to Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, has been dubbed “nuts” by Downing Street sources.
But Mr McCoy said there is an incentive for both Ireland and the UK to look into the idea.
“I’m somewhere on the public record, about five years ago, about those types of ambitions,” Mr McCoy said.
“I suggested a tunnel east-west. It wouldn’t be up in Scotland-Northern Ireland, it would be more logical, connecting the populations to each other.
“It was an argument about the alignment of the two islands, which is something I still absolutely believe in.
“That’s only a symbol of it but one that actually can pay for itself, in the connectivity between the two islands.
“There is an incentive on both sides, and Ireland has gotten richer since [Brexit].”
The Estonian and Finnish governments are currently mulling a 100km-long railway tunnel linking Tallinn to Helsinki, which a 2018 feasibility study said could cost up to €20bn, with a potential 40pc coming from EU regional development funding.
It would be the world’s longest underground tunnel, and is roughly equivalent to the distance between Rosslare and Fishguard or Dublin and Holyhead.
Mr McCoy said the cost per kilometre for the Tallinn-Helsinki tunnel could be used as a guide.
And he said it would help to ease trade disruptions if Belfast votes to scrap the Northern Ireland protocol to the Brexit deal when it comes up for a consent vote in 2024.
“That’s out of our control in the Republic unless we try to make it a part of our agenda.
And that agenda is actually a very live one because the people who make that decision are going to get elected next May in Northern Ireland.”
Meanwhile, Mr McCoy said there will be “major challenges” for Irish exporters when the UK ends its temporary customs opt-outs in April and July.
And he said “serious challenges remain” on the import side, where Revenue’s IT systems have been overwhelmed by the amount of data they are having to process simultaneously.
Meanwhile, Mr McCoy has called for “more money in scale” for companies as they try to weather the Covid-19 crisis.
He said the Government’s €2bn credit guarantee scheme – which has dispensed less than 10pc of its available funding – and the Covid Restrictions Support Scheme – where shuttered firms are entitled to a maximum weekly credit of €5000 – were not enough for firms enduring prolonged and repeated lockdowns.
“You’re starting to see medium-sized to large firms beginning to eat into their balance sheets,” he said. “They just need more money to survive, to be there for the reopening.”
‘There’s incentive on both sides, Ireland has gotten richer since Brexit’